Gabby Touchard scored a hat trick to lead Hahnville as the Lady Tigers clinched an unbeaten District 7-I championship Friday night at home, besting rival Destrehan 3-0.
Touchard scored her first two goals in the first half before adding a late in the game. It’s the second consecutive district championship for the Tigers, who outscored their four district opponents this year by a combined 15-2 score.
“December was a rough month for us with the injuries and sickness … now that we’re healthy, we’re working on the chemistry, and tonight we played some great soccer. We created some great opportunities and we were able to put away some beautiful goals today,” said Hahnville head coach Edgar Fuentes. “Overall, I’m very pleased with the way we’re progressing.”
Touchard said winning district represents a proud moment for the team, which lost several key seniors from last year’s team to graduation.
“It’s a big win for us,” Touchard said. “We lost some really good seniors from last year’s team, so it means a lot for us to get this done … it took us a while to work through things like who’s going to play where and building chemistry. As we got more and more practices together, we’ve been able to focus on moving the ball around, keeping possession and scoring.”
Hahnville (8-8-4) is ranked 15th in Division I non-select’s power point ranking, setting the Tigers up to potentially secure a home playoff game in round one with a strong finish to the regular season.
Once Hahnville’s lineup became whole again following some early injuries, it took a few games to rebuild chemistry. The team’s offense was down for much of the season, but appears to be back in a big way – the Tigers have scored at least three goals in each game of what’s been a four-game winning streak; HHS had just three such games prior to that streak this season.
That’s a very promising trend for a Hahnville team that’s been very good at preventing opposing goals all season long.
“Scoring goals comes down to recognizing the space, confidence and composure,” said Fuentes. ”That’s something we’ve lacked over the past month, but through training and talking through it (that’s improved) – we’ve got some really smart players here who understand situational soccer, and we’re starting to make our opponents pay.”
Touchard said that for her, there was indeed a need to regain some confidence.
“I just put everything that happened earlier this season behind me, focused on this game and tried my best. And it worked out. I’d been in my own head a lot, not having my best games, and I decided to do what I needed to change that,” Touchard said.
Her hat trick represented the second game in a row a Tigers’ player achieved that feat, with Lilly Hooper pulling it off against H.L. Bourgeois a game prior.
“And those players are attacking midfielders. So we’re able to score from different angles, different players and different positions. We’re a very versatile team. Depending on the situation, the matchup, we can attack to our advantage,” said Fuentes.
For Destrehan (5-11-1), the team currently sits in the 28th spot in the power rankings. A strong finish to the season would likely cement a postseason spot for the Wildcats.
